How much sand do I need?

Take the area you are covering, multiply by the depth of sand, and that volume times the density gives the weight suppliers sell by. A 20 ft by 10 ft area bedded 2 inches deep is about 33 cubic feet, a bit over a cubic yard, or roughly 1.7 tons of dry sand. Type your own dimensions and the tool works it through.

What does a yard of sand weigh?

Dry sand is around 1.35 tons per cubic yard; damp or wet sand is heavier because the water adds mass, closer to 1.5 tons or more. The default here is a dry figure you can change — if your pit or supplier quotes a density, use theirs, since moisture is the thing that shifts it.

Is bedding sand the same as fill sand?

Not for pricing or for volume. Coarse bedding sand under pavers, fine fill sand, and mason sand all pack a little differently, so their weight per yard varies. The arithmetic is identical — area times depth times density — so just enter the density for the sand you are actually buying.

Should I add extra for the paver joints or an uneven base?

Yes. A screeded bedding layer is never perfectly flat, and paver joints and edge restraints soak up more than you expect. The waste field starts at 10 percent; nudge it higher on a rough or dished base where the sand has to make up the levels.

Sand calculator

This is a volume weighed at the density you type in. Sand's weight swings with how wet and how coarse it is, and a bedding layer's real depth changes as you screed it, so read the result as an ordering estimate rather than an exact tally. Check it against your supplier's figure before you buy.

Enter the area you are covering and the sand depth, and the tool returns the volume in cubic yards and cubic metres plus the weight in tons, which is how a pit or yard quotes it. The density defaults to a dry-sand figure and is fully editable, so damp or wet sand is one number away.

Worked example

Bedding a 20 ft × 10 ft paver base 2 inches deep: the area is 200 square feet, and two inches is 1/6 of a foot, so the volume is 200 × 0.167 = 33.3 cubic feet, or 33.3 ÷ 27 ≈ 1.23 yd³. Dry sand at 1.35 tons per yard is about 1.67 tons; with 10% waste you would order close to 1.85 tons.

The formula

weight = area × depth × density

Area times depth is the volume of sand; multiplying by density converts that volume to the weight the supplier charges for. Keep depth in the same units as the area — inches become feet by dividing by 12 — and turn cubic feet into cubic yards by dividing by 27. The density carries the units the rest of the way to tons.

What this tool assumes

Nothing you cannot override. Depth, density and the waste margin are all editable fields, since those are exactly what change between dry mason sand and wet fill. The only fixed figure is that 27 cubic feet make a cubic yard — a definition, not a guess about your sand.

Questions

How much sand do I need?: Take the area you are covering, multiply by the depth of sand, and that volume times the density gives the weight suppliers sell by. A 20 ft by 10 ft area bedded 2 inches deep is about 33 cubic feet, a bit over a cubic yard, or roughly 1.7 tons of dry sand. Type your own dimensions and the tool works it through.
What does a yard of sand weigh?: Dry sand is around 1.35 tons per cubic yard; damp or wet sand is heavier because the water adds mass, closer to 1.5 tons or more. The default here is a dry figure you can change — if your pit or supplier quotes a density, use theirs, since moisture is the thing that shifts it.
Is bedding sand the same as fill sand?: Not for pricing or for volume. Coarse bedding sand under pavers, fine fill sand, and mason sand all pack a little differently, so their weight per yard varies. The arithmetic is identical — area times depth times density — so just enter the density for the sand you are actually buying.
Should I add extra for the paver joints or an uneven base?: Yes. A screeded bedding layer is never perfectly flat, and paver joints and edge restraints soak up more than you expect. The waste field starts at 10 percent; nudge it higher on a rough or dished base where the sand has to make up the levels.

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